Russia Seeks Several Military Bases Abroad Assignment

MOSCOW, February 26 (RIA Novosti) – Russia is planning to expand its permanent military presence outside its borders by placing military bases in a number of foreign countries, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday.

Shoigu said the list includes Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, the Seychelles, Singapore and several other countries.

“The talks are under way, and we are close to signing the relevant documents,” Shoigu told reporters in Moscow.

The minister added that the negotiations cover not only military bases but also visits to ports in such countries on favorable conditions as well as the opening of refueling sites for Russian strategic bombers on patrol.

Moscow currently has only one naval base outside the former Soviet Union – in Tartus, Syria, but the fate of this naval facility is uncertain because of the ongoing civil war in that country.

Post-Soviet Russia closed a large naval base in Vietnam and a radar base in Cuba in 2002 due to financial constraints.

However, Russia has started reviving its navy and strategic aviation since mid-2000s, seeing them as a tool to project the Russian image abroad and to protect its national interests around the globe.

Now, Moscow needs to place such military assets in strategically important regions of the world to make them work effectively toward the goal of expanding Russia’s global influence.

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This is a list of countries with military bases abroad. The establishment of military bases abroad enable a country to project power, e.g. to conduct expeditionary warfare, and thereby influence events abroad. Depending on their size and infrastructure, they can be used as staging areas or for logistical, communications and/or intelligence support. Many conflicts throughout modern history have resulted in overseas military bases being established in large numbers by world powers, and the existence of bases abroad has served countries having them in achieving political and military goals. The British Empire and other colonial powers established overseas military bases in many of their colonies during the First and Second World Wars, where useful, and actively sought rights to facilities where needed for strategic reasons. At one time, establishing coaling stations for naval ships was important. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union established military bases where they could within their respective spheres of influence, and actively sought influence where needed. More recently, the War on Terror has resulted in overseas military bases being established in the Middle East.

Whilst the overall number of overseas military bases has fallen since 1945, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States still possess a substantial number. Smaller numbers of overseas military bases are operated by India, Italy, Japan and Turkey.

The United States is the largest operator of military bases abroad, with 38 "named bases"[note 1] having active duty, national guard/reserve, and/or civilian personnel as of September 30, 2014. Its largest, in terms of personnel, was Ramstein AB, in Germany, with almost 9,200 personnel.[1][note 2]

China

Germany

France

Main article: Overseas military bases of France

India

Italy

Japan

Russia

Main article: List of Russian military bases abroad

Turkey

United Kingdom

Main article: Overseas military bases of the United Kingdom

United States

Main article: List of United States military bases

See also

Notes

↑ The 2015 U.S. Base Structure Report gives 587 overseas sites, but sites are merely real property at a distinct geographical location, and multiple sites may belong to one installation (page DoD-3). For example, the Garmisch, Germany "named base" with its 72 personnel has eight distinct sites large enough to be listed in the Army's Individual Service Inventory list: Artillery Kaserne, Breitenau Skeet Range, Garmisch Family Housing, Garmish Golf Course, General Abrams Hotel And Disp, Hausberg Ski Area, Oberammergau NATO School, and Sheridan Barracks (listed in Army-15 to Army-17). These range in size from Ramstein AB with 9,188 active, guard/reserve, and civilian personnel down to Worms, which has just one civilian.

↑ Djibouti: Changing Influence in the Horn’s Strategic Hub, chathamhouse.org, David Styan, April 2013 ("Having temporarily used US facilities, a Japanese base, situated close to Camp Lemonnier, opened in July 2011. Around 600 members of its Maritime Self-Defence Forces rotate between Japan’s naval vessels operating from the port of Djibouti and the camp. Naval units protecting Japanese shipping in the region had operated out of the US base prior to 2011. Japan is reported to pay an annual rent of $30 million for the facilities, similar to the sums paid for either of the far larger US and French bases. This has led to an expansion of Japan’s civilian aid programme to Djibouti, which has also become a hub for wider development activities in the Horn by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.")

↑ Lavrov, Anton (2010). "Post-war Deployment of Russian Forces in Abkhazia and South Ossetia". In Ruslan Pukhov. The Tanks of August. Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. ISBN 978-5-9902320-1-3.